Epstein Case Undermined by Too Much Politics … and Too Little Evidence

If the Epstein case does not make sense to you, it may be because it has become too political.  In fact, the drumbeat of news has less to do with Epstein’s crimes and more to do with President Trump.  That is what Democrats and the left-wing press keep obsessing on.  Have you ever seen a news report on the Epstein case that did not involve speculation about Trump?  I have not.

To understand the issues, you need to understand the difference between a court-of-law and the court-of-public-opinion – and political narratives and facts.  Political narratives are the briefs in a court-of-law.  They are one-sided arguments proffered to either incriminate or exonerate – depending on the political perspective.  The problem with the court-of-public-opinion is that there are no legal guidelines.  No rules-of-evidence.  No sworn testimony.  No perjury.  It wallows in baseless accusations, speculation and disinformation.

Democrats and their media allies have piled on a lot of speculation and accusations regarding Trump’s relationship with Epstein.  They are serving as the prosecution in the court-of-public-opinion – and their brief is not constrained by facts or truth.

CNN’s Michael Smerconish gave the most accurate and objective assessment of the case against Trump.  He said that nothing that has been revealed in the thousands of emails and documents made public so far contains anything that incriminates Trump in any of Epstein’s nefarious activities. 

Did Trump associate with Epstein on a friendly social basis?  Yes.  As did any number of other wealthy and prominent individuals.  Epstein was regularly photographed with business, civic and political leaders at innumerable social gatherings.  He was invited to weddings.  But … there is no evidence that Trump was involved with any of Epstein’s girls — and that includes any underage girls.  For all of Trump’s womanizing reputation, there is no indication that he was attracted to underage girls.

If such evidence exists, it would likely have been made public when President Biden controlled the Department of Justice. If there are other individuals – prominent and otherwise — culpable in l’affaire Epstein, they should have surfaced at the end of Trump’s first term or during Biden’s four years in office.  So, why didn’t they?  Was there nothing to see or investigate?  Or was that a bipartisan cover-up? 

Trump has been mentioned in many of the statements and emails – among many others.  Democrats have spun that fact beyond all recognition.  They ominously note that Epstein called Trump “the dog that didn’t bark” – as if that is evidence of anything.   One survivor said that Trump was in the same room with her on one occasion.  Evidence of nothing.

The suspicion is that there are other culprits who should be investigated – and be held accountable in a court-of-law.  Survivors, family members and attorneys claim that there are – and that they need to be revealed to provide closure.  If so, why have the survivors not simply named them?  Who are the men (or women) with whom the underage girls had sex.  So, far, they only named Epstein and Maxwell — with one exception, Britain’s Prince Andrew.  That case languishes at the “she said/he said” level.   While Andrew has been stripped of his royal titles, there has been no criminal prosecution … so far.

In terms of Trump, what little testimony we have seen suggests that he is not one of the culprits.  Epstein’s cohort, Ghislaine Maxwell has testified that she has never seen Trump acting inappropriately.  One can conjure all sorts of reasons why she might say that, but the fact of her testimony remains unimpugned.  No one – none of the survivors – has accused Trump of wrongdoing or accused Maxwell of lying.

What we seem to have are two dubious political narratives – one from the left and one from the right.  On the left it is all about Trump and his alleged involvement in Epstein’s activities.  On the right, it is all about some secret left-wing pedophilia operation that is being concealed and covered up.  Both narratives are being advanced aggressively despite a lack of hard evidence on either side.  It is all speculation motivated by political biases.

There is one issue that has some validity.  We know that Epstein ran a sex operation serving the rich, powerful and famous – while indulging in his own depraved proclivities.   That resulted in his prison suicide and the incarceration of his partner/enabler.  Beyond that the current evidence gets murky.

The issue that has hung over the case was the culpability of others.  Many names have surfaced of folks who have had an association with Epstein besides Trump – including President Clinton, Prince Andrew, billionaires Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, economist and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, actor Kevin Spacey, physicist Stephen Hawking, constitutional lawyer and Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz … and the list goes on and on.

While there is scurrilous gossip associated with these names, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing on their parts – especially evidence that would stand up in a court-of-law.

So, why have the Epstein files been held back from public view?

One reason is that it is the tradition of the American justice system to not share information about individuals who are not under investigation to avoid needless embarrassment or guilt by association – the fodder in the court-of-public-opinion.  For similar reasons, grand jury testimony and evidence are considered secret – not to be publicly released except in extreme cases.  One can fairly argue that the Epstein matter has become an extreme case.

Over time, more and more of the Epstein files have been released – tens of thousands of pages – and they have provided nothing more than grist for the political gossip mills.  One can reasonably assume that if there were young women being sexually abused, there has to be culprits.  So far, we have not seen any hard evidence of who they might be – evidence that is prosecutable in a court-of-law — not just salacious information for the court-of-public-opinion and mendacious political narratives emanating from both sides for obvious reasons.

I suspect that one way or the other – official release or politically motivated leaks – we will be seeing a lot more of the hitherto unseen documents.  If there is hard evidence tying individuals – prominent or not – to the depraved activities of Jeffrey Epstein, the nation will unite in condemnation and demands for accountability and justice. 

In terms of Trump, I would not be surprised if all the sound and fury we have experienced coming from Democrats and the left-wing media in recent months is as valid as the sound and fury we experienced for years during the now debunked Russian conspiracy theory.  We will have to wait and see.

So, there ‘tis.